Blogs
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Grant Thornton highlights investment growth in the financial and UK business support services market
The business support services industry is set for a strong year according to the latest Smart Money study from business and financial adviser Grant Thornton UK LLP.
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Monday, June 25, 2012
Making the right impression: outsourcing website performance testing
by Bob Dowson, director at NCC Group
It’s taken a long time, but most companies have now set up their stalls in cyber space. The internet provides a perfect platform from which to do business, network and get your name out there – making websites a must-have commodity.
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Thursday, June 21, 2012
With great outsourcing comes great responsibility
by George Davies, CEO of MooD International
The connection between outsourcing client and supplier is often fraught. Misunderstandings, miscommunications and disappointment are a frequent feature of the relationship, with both sides becoming frustrated by problems.
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Towards a More Balanced Outsourcing Industry
by Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO, Future Processing
At the beginning of April, Martyn Hart, chairman of the NOA, wrote a blog post for Sourcing Focus about a trend towards onshoring and nearshoring in SME manufacturing companies. I believe this trend is not just confined to manufacturing, which is heavily reliant on the price of raw materials, but is also affecting other areas like IT outsourcing.
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An education in technology
by Julian Mitchell, Education Sector Manager, Eduserv
Selling Services to the Higher Education and Further Education sector is a complicated affair.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Cloud sourcing meets crowd sourcing
by Terry Walby, UK MD of IPsoft
As more companies begin to dip their toe into the water that is the use of cloud - or those who were early adopters begin to ramp up the scale and breadth of their use of cloud services - one thing is becoming apparent.
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Communities - EDI and digital signatures
by Nigel Taylor, Head of e-Invoicing, GXS
Over the course of this blog series we have looked at how EDI and digital signatures have fared against one another within commonly contested categories, including tax compliance and other regulation within Europe.
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Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Outsourcing security: don’t just leave it to the experts
by John Turner, Director, independent IT and business change professional services firm, Xceed Group
When it comes to data security, many firms decide they’re happy just to leave it to the experts, safe in the knowledge that they’ll keep their data under lock and key and away from harm.
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The Attraction for US based fund managers setting up in the UK
by Andrew Rubio, CEO, Throgmorton
Since the early 2000’s, US based Hedge Fund and Private Equity managers have looked across the Atlantic as a way of expanding their businesses.
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MTI Managed Service Series for the CIO: Part 1
by Simon Walters, managed services director at MTI
PART 1: How managed services can streamline IT, freeing up CIOs’ time - unlocking resources and removing bottlenecks.
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Friday, June 15, 2012
The importance of creating a good first impression
by Adam Tilson, Director of Direct Response Limited
Adam Tilson, Director of Direct Response Limited’s call centre business outlines the importance of creating a good first impression…
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Thursday, June 14, 2012
Talent acquisition: why contacts count more than ever
by Mark Moreau, Commercial Director, True North Human Capital
The majority of organisations outsource recruitment for new personnel, especially for C level roles, without a second thought, but are they right to do so?
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Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Does Outsourcing Have A Place In Software Development?
by Steve Woor, Global Integration
SIG recently held an intriguing round-table in London to discuss the question, “What makes a successful software development team?”
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Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Can A Cultural Misfit Work?
by By Jeff Toms, Marketing and Client Services Director, Farnham Castle
Whenever teams of people from different nations need to work together, cultural aspects come into play. This is because our heritage and culture are instilled into us from many years of shared history, perspectives and beliefs.
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Bringing social media into contact centres
by Adam Jarvis, CEO, Intrinsic Technology
Businesses that engage directly with consumers must have a way of dealing with customer feedback. Reacting to customer views, whether good or bad, is integral to improving service performance. Contact centres are therefore key to customer relationship management.
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Outsourcing EDI: A fully managed approach part 2
by Steve Rees, product manager at Wesupply, the UK Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) service provider.
Steve Rees, product manager at Wesupply, the UK Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) service provider, continues with his look at managed services and best practice is employing EDI.
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Monday, June 11, 2012
Are board directors ‘above it’ when it comes to IT security?
by Dominic Saunders, Senior Vice President of the NETconsent business unit at Cryptzone
There’s a saying ‘do as I say, not as I do’ which seems to resonate in the executive corridor of far too many organisations. A survey of 300 IT security professionals proves just that as it revealed that board directors are most likely to ignore or flout security policies and procedures, with 42% cited as frequently ignoring them.
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Friday, June 08, 2012
Outsourcing Governance: 4 things to ask yourself
by Paul Hart, Senior Managing Consultant, Relationship Alignment Practice, IBM.
In this series of blogs, Paul Hart, IBM, shares his observations and thoughts on outsourcing governance to consider during your next governance meeting.
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Outsourcing in call centres and customer service
by Martin Scovell, CEO of MatsSoft.
This year represents a pivotal period for outsourced contact centres, with financial pressures, technological advances, compliance issues and consolidation all driving deep and lasting change within the industry.
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Thursday, June 07, 2012
Outsourcing EDI: A fully managed approach part 1
by Steve Rees, product manager at Wesupply, the UK Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) service provider.
Part 1 on the outsourcing of EDI by Steve Rees is product manager at Wesupply on how organisations can gain the benefits of a fully managed approach to outsourcing EDI.
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Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Interoperability
by Nigel Taylor, Head of e-Invoicing, GXS
In this blog, we will look at how EDI and digital signatures compare to each other when it comes to interoperability. What we mean by this is how effectively they enable businesses to exchange and share information between one another using any given format.
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Friday, June 01, 2012
Proactive and joined up risk management
by Dr Bharat Vagadia Founder and Director: Op2i and Governance Director. Board member NOA
Although the number of organisations pursuing strategic outsourcing initiatives continues to rise, numerous studies reveal that more than half of these investments fail to return the benefits executives expect; derailing an organisation, losing significant time and money in sunk investment, and in some cases harming the relationships with customers.
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Everything I know about outsourcing negotiation, I learnt from Star Trek
by Greg Jones and Mark Turner are sourcing experts at PA Consulting Group.
For those not several light years into the sad zone, the Kobayashi Maru was a no-win training exercise in Star Trek, famously beaten by one James T Kirk. Though it may not be immediately obvious, there are some lessons here for businesses negotiating outsourcing deals.
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